


A Lesson in Cultural Blunders

by Dragonnova



Series: Family Happens [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen, Humor, Multi, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, end of game new begining senerio, implied budding moirallegiance Dirk/Psii, moirail x2 combo, not quite moirallegiance for Dave/Sol just really tight friends, pesterchum logs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-22
Updated: 2013-02-22
Packaged: 2017-12-03 04:58:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/694424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonnova/pseuds/Dragonnova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's the little lessons in life that keep things interesting.  Life was not perfect after the game had ended, there was still that learning curve for trolls and humans to co-exist.  This is just one of those nights that should have been an epic game night for two teenage friends -except it got kicked in the nuts by a psionic migraine, a need to touch horns, and learning that humans and Sopor are not quite compatible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Lesson in Cultural Blunders

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the "Family Happens" series of fics goblinBird and I are working on. It's one of those happy endings - sort of - where everyone is alright and having to adapt to this new world where Humans and Trolls co-exist.
> 
> I do not write out Thollux'th lithp. It is mentioned, but not written out. I have liked that when other author's mention his lisp but don't write it, it's easier to read and I still imagine it's there. For the record, Psii only lisps when he's extremely tired or drunk (not that that happens much.)
> 
> This fic is illustrated!

This Saturday night may seem to be just like any other Saturday night, and perhaps for some poor mook somewhere out there - yeah, it was probably pretty _whatever_. But this was not true for Sollux Captor and Dave Strider. No, this night was to be the epic game night of all epic game nights - the end all be all of game nights! At least until the next game night which would undoubtedly outdo this one, because you can only grow in awesomeness, there is no turning back. But that whole business is future business and Dave felt as though he had had enough of the time shenanigans for now; he wanted to just enjoy this for what it was. Forget the past, and the future can just stay right where it is and not bother him tonight.

Sollux's roommates were going to be gone for a few weeks to various destinations. The gaming muses must have blessed the two of them by aligning the stars 'just so' and sending Aradia off to some scholastic excavation site while also sending Feferi (and of course her shadow) to the ocean for a much needed get away from the Texas heat. Impeccable timing and an empty apartment, this was going to be the first of many perfect bro-nights filled with digital murder and junk food.

So far it was shaping up to be everything they had hoped for. More so than Dave could have imagined, actually. He'd already beaten Sollux at a few rounds of Mortal Kombat earlier, and just now Sol got annoyed and slapped Dave's Siren, challenging him to a duel in Borderlands; it was looking like yet another victory was about to tucked neatly into his pocket with the others. As much as he hated to admit it, this was rare when fighting against Sollux, the kid was like a freak of nature when it came to the crazy mad gaming skills.

The small apartment living room echoed with the clacking of controllers pushed forcefully to far, the mashing clicks of buttons, as well as the slight eruption of a disgruntled growl in the darkened room. Bright flashes of light danced on the walls, flickering momentarily before dulling to the soft blue glow of a television screen. A short laugh finally escaped from Dave before he could stop it, just as Sollux pulled back a clenched fist and slugged him in the shoulder as hard as he could before slamming his controller to the carpet and standing up.

"Dude, chill." Dave let his controller slide down and settle in his lap as he leaned back into the couch. It was a good thing Sollux was such a skinny lightweight when it came to physical strength, he barely even felt that love-tap and it was pretty easy to just sit there like a smug little douche.

"I am 'chill'. Stop trying to act like a _smug little douche_." Sollux ignored the way Dave's eyebrow arched up above his shades while he purposefully mouthed the word ' _psychic_ '. He walked a few steps away before he stretching with a groan and rolling his shoulders. Something cracked painfully loud in his joints before he stalked off towards his kitchen.

"Well, you seemed to be getting a little hot and bothered there, had to make sure you're weren't going to flip your psionic shiz and blow us all to kingdom come." Dave called after him, fighting the slight upward twitch at the corner of his mouth back down, successfully keeping his cool facade perfectly in place.

"I was not, and that's not even funny, Strider." Sollux had stopped dead still, glancing back at the human on the couch. "If it weren't for my headache you wouldn't be sitting there gloating."

"Oh yeah. Headache. THURE." Dave nodded, seeming to agree with the troll while making fun of his lisp. "It has nothing to do with my mad skills. I'm only winning because your brain is shorting out."

"Exactly," Sollux replied, opting to ignore the lisp insult.

"So, your brain shorts out a lot then?" Dave asked, not even flinching when a random throw pillow connected with the back of his head.

Sollux decided to pass on pushing the fight any further than that when the dull thumping pain in his brain seemed to kick it up a notch and blur the vision in his right eye. He grumbled something unintelligible as he stumbled over the various crap littering the floor in order to find his migraine pills. They were kept in the kitchen cabinet now, since Aradia slapped his hands and announced to the entire apartment that all meds were to be kept in this kitchen cabinet because she was tired of people losing them all the time. Which, yeah, Sollux lost his pills a lot which really made him a bit unbearable at times.

Honestly, the pain wasn't that bad yet, but he could feel it was going to get nasty really quickly if he didn't take care of it now. The lights were bothering him something terrible. He groaned when he turned on the kitchen light, only to flick it back off and stumble to the kitchen sink and turn on the dim little overhead light there. It wasn't going to be long before sound made him ill, movement and quick motions as well, and then he'd start sparking like a Tesla coil and seeing auras around everything. By the time he started sparking all hope was lost and he'd have to try and sleep it off - or throw up on someone and then sleep it off.

Dave had it coming if he got puked on.

But it would also bring their night to a screeching stop if that happened, and he had actually been looking forward to this all week. The girls were gone, Eridan included in that description, so he had the apartment to himself. The moment they had stepped out the door he had contacted Dave to see if he wanted to spend the week in gaming nirvana.

The downfall is that these migraines seemed to swoop out of nowhere and run him over like freight train. If he could catch it now, stop it before it got any worse, maybe he wouldn't have to put a stop to their gaming night. Maybe he could even get away with not letting Dave know exactly how bad these things get. Apparently, a raging migraine on a psionic was actually rather frightening to behold, or so he has been told.

Still - the thought of puking on Dave was a strangely pleasant thought at the moment.

"Hey, you want something to drink?" Sollux called from the kitchen, trying to keep things sounding cool as he fished out his pills from the cupboard and then snagged something hideously caffeinated from the fridge before walking back out to Dave. "I've got apple juice in there."

"Nah, maybe later," Dave answered, glancing at Sollux as he came around the couch and plunked down. He actually did a double take as the troll sat down. "Dude, you weren't just yanking my leg."

Sollux looked confused, blinking over his small anaglyph shades that had slipped down his nose slightly. He was about to ask what he was talking about when Dave leaned closer and brushed back some of his dark hair, the proximity causing him to lean back before he caught himself and forced himself to remain still.

"Yeah, man, your right eye looks a bit, I don't know, shiny. Brighter or something, like crazy cow-abducting Zelda alien headlights kind of bright. You know that creepy as all heck part of Majora's Mask." Dave pulled back watching his friend for a moment.

"Oh yeah, that analogy wasn't insulting to the 'alien' in any way," Sollux said and then snorted before he popped his pills into his mouth and drank part of his Jolt.

"And your horns are sparking like a cheap kiddie ray-gun too. You okay?"

"Uh, I guess it's skipping ahead a bit." Sollux reached up and rubbed his horn, unable to fight the visible flicker of pain across his features, causing his eye to twitch and glow just a touch brighter. "Usually I get a bit sensitive to sound before I start sparking. But, yeah, I'll be okay. I just need to take a break." Sollux pulled his glasses off as he leaned back into the couch, rubbing at his eyes as he settled into the cushions.

"Can I do something?" Dave asked, a bit worried now but still trying not to be obvious about it.

"Nhhh, I'm just going to close my eyes for a bit. I'll be okay in a few minutes," Sollux said as he crossed his arms over his chest, pulled his feet up onto the cushion, and snuggled deeper into the couch. He almost looked like he was trying to pull himself into a tight little ball and disappear. "You can keep playing, or watch something if you want. It won't bother me." He fell silent for a moment before he added, "or go home, I mean, I know it's not exactly fun to be around me when this happens."

"Nah, I'm good." Dave got up and rummaged around the DVD case before picking some ironically crappy movie off the floor to stick in the game system. "You'll be okay in a bit, I can stick around. Hey, isn't the noise going to bother you, though? I can turn it off and raid your comic books or something."

"Nah, really I'm okay," Sollux murmured.

Dave could almost swear he saw him visibly relax once Sollux knew he wasn't going to abscond the heck out of there at the first little hiccup in their night. He pressed the play button on the controller, making sure to turn the sound down to a barely audible whisper before flinging it on the couch. He glanced at Sollux as he passed by on his way to the kitchen, his friend was trying not to be noticeable about it, but he was grimacing and reaching up to press one knuckle into his temple while rubbing his thumb across one of his horns.

It reminded Dave of when John would rub his temple after reading the tiny writing on his phone for too long. Perhaps trolls felt the strain a bit in their horns? Dave had had headaches before, who hasn't? But he didn't really know what was up with migraines other than they were like fifty times more potent. John said they were horrible. Couldn't be much different for a troll. You're head gets to hurting and everything else starts to hurt along with it, right? Maybe their horns weren't just bone or something that stuck out of their heads for no reason other than making a a guy want candy corn. Maybe there were nerve endings that would flair up when crap like this went down, it would certainly explain the light show he was witnessing.

The sudden urge to touch Sollux's horns was a bit unnerving, that's for sure.

After rummaging about in the kitchen, Dave returned to the couch with a small bottle of apple juice in one hand, and a bottle of water in the other. Hopefully Feferi didn't keep her special Dasani bottled water numbered with death threats to all who touched them. She was a sweet kid most of the time but, wow, she could get snarly. He shoved the water into Sollux's hands, startling the troll into sitting up. The air felt statically charged for a moment; Dave felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and caught the whiff of ozone until Sollux focused on the bottle in his hands.

"You need to drink some water. You're going to make it worse with this stuff," Dave said as he picked up the jolt cola on the coffee table and walked away with it.

A look of disdain flickered across Sollux's face as he rolled his eyes at Dave's back, "Yes, lusus."

"Damn straight, bro. I'll show you Strider brand lususing," Dave muttered back as he disappeared into the kitchen again.

Sollux stared at the water for a moment while listening to Dave dumping his Jolt down the sink and running the tap to rinse it away. He sighed and then opened the water and downed about half of the bottle before setting it on the coffee table. He then curled back in on himself, trying to settle back into that slightly unaware blissfulness he had managed to achieve before Dave started fretting around him like an overbearing featherbeast.

After a few minutes he felt a presence behind him before he felt Dave gently tap the top of his head to alert him that he was there. "Lean forward for a minute," he said, waiting for his friend to obey before he placed a cold compress to the back of Sollux's neck. "I know it seems stupid, but it actually does work. I've heard heat over your eyes works too, we can try that if this doesn't work."

Sollux muttered something that sounded like a 'thank you' before he leaned back and tried to block out the world until the throbbing pain stopped. Dave just shrugged before he flopped down onto the couch and tried to watch the movie for a bit.

It was a agonizing fight staying awake just after ten minutes of the terrible movie that only the likes of John Egbert could manage to find appealing. It felt like just a few moments had passed but it was much longer. Dave would slip into snooze mode, head tilting forward until his chin hit his chest and then he'd startle awake and look over at Sol. He hadn't been fully aware he was dosing off, at least he thought it was just for a moment. He ignored the fact that that wasn't true, choosing to think the movie was just stupid with the way it seemed to make absolutely no sense and had a bad case of poor plot time jumping.

He'd hear Sollux say something every once in a while. He must have woken up and asked what was happening and Dave would twitch awake and answer, not even sure if what he said made sense or not. He figured it did, it made sense in his head, it wasn't like he was asleep. He knew exactly what was going on in the movie.

It wasn't until he jerked awake to the sound of the menu music that he realized he had honestly fallen sound asleep. This was worse than just dozing off, with your head lulling to some uncomfortable angle that would later hurt like blue blazes. Oh no, it was not that simple. He must have scuttled around until he got himself into this strange sprawled out position with one leg hanging over the back of the couch and his butt buried in the crack of the cushions. Sollux must officially crashed and shifted around as well. He was sound asleep with one arm flung around Dave's middle and his face buried in his shirt like he was his personal body pillow.

Dave felt something clammy and cold resting against his hip, pinned between the cushion and his thigh. He fumbled behind himself for it, pulling the still damp cloth out from underneath his hip. He tossed the offending object away into the void feeling slightly disgruntled that his jeans were now damp. The offending cloth got flung to the bowels of God knows where, hopefully it was not on something important or electronic. Not that Dave could muster the need to care. It's not like it mattered all that much anyway in this heap. With the girls gone, the apartment had become bachelor heaven, hence the reason Dave didn't mind crashing here.

He kicked at the blanket that had been on the back of the couch earlier but was now tangled around his leg, trying to pull it up with his foot without waking up Sollux. He managed to get it hooked on his foot enough to pull it up and grab it, but did a horrible job of getting it spread out over them.

The menu music was becoming almost unbearable now. He searched for the controller, which he soon found the wire was wrapped around Sollux's torso and clasped in his other hand dangling off the front of the couch. How he managed that is beyond imagination. He must have been trying to hit the button to turn on the movie again and failed in his sleep stupor mission. Dave pried it from Sol's hand, feeling him shift in his sleep. He clicked the play button on the controller before letting it slide to who gives a crap.

Sollux was still sparking slightly, not as badly as before, but there was a slight crackle and snap of blue or red. His eyes were closed, he seemed to be asleep but there was an almost strained look on his face. Dave accidentally brushed his hand over one of Sollux's horns as he tried to shift and get comfortable again. Which caused a sudden sharp intake of air from the troll. Dave thought for for a second that he had hurt him, or woken him up, but instead of tensing up further Sollux just relaxed a bit and a strange short ' _click_ ' echoed in the room before the sound from the movie kicked in.

_'What the heck was that?'_

Dave hesitated for a moment, his hand hovering just above the larger of Sollux's right horns.

 _'Would Sollux get mad? Would he wake up? Is this totally creepy? I feel like some sorta pervert doing this, but oh well.'_ He finally gave in to the curiosity and gently ran a finger down the larger horn just under his hand, carefully gauging what little he could see of Sollux's face for any sort of adverse reaction. He figured everything was fine when his friend simply relaxed and settled in his sleep. It seemed safe enough to allow himself to rest his arm over Sollux's shoulder as he ran a thumb over his horn in small circles.

It was the strangest feeling. Something that startles you right at first and you want to jerk your hand away, but then you can't hardly fight the urge to continue touching it. It sort of felt like bone but slightly softer, and there was this thrum of energy that seemed to lurk just below the orange surface. Like an electric current that could be felt pulsing, powerful enough that it could most likely zap the daylights out of you if it were touched directly. Maybe that's why Sollux had been rubbing this horn, maybe that electric current was flaring up and this calming motion seemed to disrupt it slightly. Was this something only a psionic had going?

Ugh, he now had the burning freaky need to touch Karkat's horns and that would not go over well.

A strange little chirrup erupted from Sollux again before he turned his head half into the cushion and buried his face further into Dave's chest and the couch. Dave snort laughed before he could stifle the sound, then waited to see if he had woken him up. When nothing else happened he relaxed and settling back to fold his other arm under his head like a pillow while he continued to rest the other on Sollux's shoulder and idly stroke his horn.

Sollux started purring. It wasn't really like a cat purring, more like a quiet chirping or clicking in the back of his throat. But still it was funny as hades but had that same comforting drowsy effect a kitten had. The last conscious thought Dave had before he drifted off again was wishing he had recorded this because it was such perfect blackmail material for later.

IOIOIOIOIOIOI

"Yo, you seen Dave around?" Dirk Strider was standing in front of the post boxes flicking through the mass of magazines he just pulled from the box.

"I'm afraid I have not," The Psiioniic answered as he pulled a few small letters out of his post box and then puzzled over the package that was in it.

"Not that I'm worried or anything, I just - you know, he usually texts if he's going to be out all night. Have you seen him?" Dirk's eyebrow twitched the moment he realized he had just asked again.

"Perhaps he's visiting Sollux." Psii ignored the slip up and held up the package, "I need to drop this off for him, would you like to me to see if your brother is there?"

"Nah, I don't want to bother them if they're doing whatever twerps do. I just... He usually texts if he's going... Fffu-" Dirk pinched the bridge of his nose, stifling the obscenity that was about to escape him. So much for keeping cool.

"It's not a problem. I have to pass by his apartment on my way. I'll let you know if your brother is there." The corner of Psii's mouth twitched upwards as he pocketed his mail box keys and started to walk away, "And I'll be discreet in my mission."

Dirk groaned, staring up at the lobby ceiling, "Yeah, thanks, man. I swear my slip is probably showing, next thing you know I'll start baking cakes and wearing high heels. I should tie the kid to my ruffled apron strings."

Psii had stopped, turning back to stare at his neighbor while a delicate eyebrow arched so high it was fairly close to disappearing in his hairline. Dirk stared back at him, unreadable.

"And this is ironic humor I take it?" Psii asked.

"Ironic as it gets, crossplaying a 50s housewife is ironic as hell," Dirk stated.

~

It was rather late, or early in the morning, by human standards. Something that had taken a little bit of time to get used to. For some reason though, Psii felt more awake at night and seemed to prefer keeping the nocturnal habits of their Alternian society. The kids seemed to be more willing to adapt to the new surroundings, going out in the daylight thanks to the gentle earth sunlight and the lack of vicious beasts that threatened to eat any troll that went a wandering.

Psii however enjoyed this time alone. Late at night when people weren't around. He'd usually check his mail early in the morning in hopes of avoiding other tenants. Except for Dirk, he didn't mind running into him. Dirk would often come home late from work and check his mail on the way in. Other times Psii wondered if he had worked out his obsessive patterns and intentionally went to check his mail at the same time.

He walked up to Sollux's door, fumbling with the small package that had been mistakenly put in the wrong Captor's post box _yet again_. The boy certainly seemed to get a rather disgusting amount of packages, what on earth was that child ordering every night? And how was he funding this little hobby?

Psii stood silently before Sollux's apartment door, tilting his head down as he leaned in close to listen. It was deathly silent in there, which was terribly unusual for this household. There was usually bickering going on at any given time of day. Perhaps living with Dualscar's descendant was not such a brilliant plan if the constant yelling was any sort of clue. There would always be some sort of fight breaking out, which often ended with Sollux storming over to Psii's apartment and holing up for hours to escape the 'douchefin' or whatever colorful fish plus crude language pun he could come up with.

Honestly, none of them seemed like really brilliant housemates if anyone cared to know how Psii truthfully felt about it. Aradia perhaps, she seemed to really care about Sollux. He chose not to think about the Peixes child, but all this was beside the point. If it wasn't a constant stream of bickering going on in there, then it was something electronic thumping away. Sollux had issues with sleeping at night or any time of day really. He suffered from insomnia quite often, so he could usually be heard up and about at any given time. Like ancestor, like descendant.

Silence greeted him after a few careful knocks. Psii didn't really want to wake them if they were sleeping, perhaps it would be alright to just slip in and leave the package on their table. He could quietly check for the Strider wriggler, and then leave. He  _was_ technically Sollux's guardian after all, he was supposed to let himself in and check on them. Even if the idea of taking on a lusus role in a young trolls life seemed rather foreign and strange to him still.

A quiet sigh escaped his parted lips as he pulled the keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door as quietly as he could. The lock clicked, the hinge squeaked just a little bit as he pushed open the door and stepped inside. The soft glow of the television illuminated the short entryway that led to the living room. Psii set the package down on the little 'catch all' end table near the door as he closed it and stepped further in. There was a bulletin board hanging just inside the door with various hand written notes scrawled across the white board and various papers and photos pinned with tiny bee magnets. Psii caught sight of Feferi's handwriting and caught himself stopping to read the message.

"I forgot the girls are gone," He whispered to himself after reading Feferi's various _'I'm so exci---ted!! but be shore to take care of yourself w)(ile we're gone, stupid_ ' reminder notes. She seemed sweet. That was all he was willing to mentally spit out on the matter.

Psii stumbled over a throw pillow as he stepped into the living room. While scanning the area he felt his stomach drop like the bass in one of Dirk's mixes at the scene. It was horrible. Indescribable. It looked like the devastated battlefield of garbage, girly decor, wires, and clothes. A cd case crunched painfully under his foot as he stepped down in the dimly lit room, eliciting a curse under his breath as he stumbled over to the couch and found the two kids he had been looking for.

Sollux had one leg hanging over the front of the couch, practically kneeling half on the carpet, the other was tangled with Dave's right leg and a controller wire. Dave had one foot actually hoisted up on the back of the couch one arm flung over one eye, knocking his shades askew, with the other arm wrapped securely around Sollux's head. Both of them were snoring, perhaps – ah yes, drooling.

Psii straightened back up from peering over the back at the couch at them, they didn't look comfortable to be honest, but yet they looked completely content. He raised a hand towards the light switch on the wall of the little area these small apartments called a dining room using his psionics to carefully turn the light switch and spread a little light. The ceiling lamp barely faded up to a gentle glow, enough to light the mine field that was the carpet, or what should have been the carpet if it was visible, but not enough to wake the boys.

He scanned the area for a phone, spotting one on the coffee table next to Dave's bookbag. Psii picked it up and hoped it wasn't password locked as he tapped the screen. The phone lit up as he quickly turned off all of the phones alert sounds and then Psii walked back to the end of the couch near the boys' feet; held the phone out and snapped a photo of the two in their tangled heap of limbs and drool. He then searched the contacts and quickly found the one titled 'Bro' and then picture messaged Dirk before opening pesterchum.

 

turntechGodhead  [TG] began pestering timaeusTestified  [TT]

TG: I think I found them.

TT: Yes. Hell, yes. That one is getting blown up and plastered all over the fridge man. I'm taking that to Hobby Lobby and getting that crap framed in some friggin fancy gold frame with non reflective glass and the works. I'm going to set it as his computer wallpaper every time he leaves his room. Then I'm going to whip it out every time a girlfriend comes over... it's going in the scrapbook right next to that one where he's running buck naked down the hall dragging his first smuppet by the nose when he was two. 

TT: Dude, take more! I need different angles!

TG: You are incorrigible.

TT: Shoot, I'll send them to you. Give me your cell number I'll send them to you so when Sollux isn't looking you can plaster his walls with it. Oh YES! Give some to his little girlfriends.

TG: I think if I sent my number from Dave's phone, Sollux would find a way to hack us and erase the evidence. You should probably protect this with your life. Put it on a flash drive, encrypt the living crap out of it, then put it in a safety deposit box downtown.

TT: hopy shiz, bro! Are you being funny? OMGWTFBBQ there's hope for you!

TG: Actually wait, really put it on a drive for me. I'll keep it under my protection. I have a few more years of experience on him. He can't fight my skills. 

TG: Incoming photos

Psii snapped a few more photos, quickly photo messaging them on to Dirk.

TT: Okay that one is going in my wallet.

TG: Would you like for me to wake him and send him home?

TT: Nah, I figured he was there. Let 'em stay there.

TG: They do not exactly look 'comfortable' should I attempt to get them into Sollux's room?

TT: Dave sleeps like the dead, man. He won't wake up if you feel like you need to move him. You'd know better about Sol, tho."

Psii bit his lip, glancing at the smaller troll still sound asleep. He felt strangely close to the boy, they were not familiar with the earth 'family' way of living but there was always a strange sort of connection between descendants and ancestors. A connection that had nothing to do with quadrants, something hard to pin down and understand because adult trolls and children never really mingled until now. He felt this connection but he hadn't really gotten to know the tiny details like this about the boy.

TG: I think it might be best to try to move them somewhere more comfortable. Sollux might wake up, if he's anything like I am. But I think it will be alright -

TG: I think I need to clean.

TT: LOL, teenage kids in an apartment by themselves! It's like college dorm life except with even more excessive outbreaks of stupid. Hey, I say have at it man. You can dazzle them with your godlike powers and how things just magically appearified clean in the cupboards. Tell them later that you shall smite them with your awesome magics if they cross you. 

TT: and then actually smite them if they do because the little runts asked for it.

turntechGodhead [TG] ceased pestering timaeusTestified [TT]

After putting Dave's phone back down exactly where he found it, Psii turned back to the boys and tried to figure out how to unwrap them from their current entanglement. Carefully untying wires and trying to untangle them from each other and the clutter all around them. He managed to lift Sollux up with the help of his psionics, pulling him close and balancing him on his hip while letting the boy's head fall onto his shoulder as he reached down and picked up the blanket that had fallen on the floor. He tossed the blanket over towards the couch and then used his psionics to lay it carefully back over Dave, who had shivered slightly at the sudden loss of warmth when Sollux disappeared from under his arm.

Psii retreated into Sollux's respiteblock, emerging once again after just a short while had passed. He came back for Dave, but hesitated. This was going to be extremely awkward if the human boy woke up, but he couldn't just leave him out here in the cold like that. Who ever heard of sleeping all night on a couch anyway? That was just... odd and uncomfortable.

He half used his psionics to help scoop Dave up the same way he had Sollux, noting that he was actually considerably taller, heavier, and a bit more awkward to carry than Sollux had been so he simply used his power to float him into the respiteblock.

A few moments passed as Psii tried his best to get Dave 'ready for bed' thankfully Dirk was right, the boy slept like the dead. It was a bit unnerving though, he could have sworn he heard Sollux snort but when he turned to look the young troll was sound asleep.

Honestly, he would have felt better if he had woken up. It seemed strange, they were similar in so many ways, but then there were so many other ways in which they were polar opposites. If it had been him, he would have woken up the moment the front door clicked open. The only time he ever found he was oblivious was when he focused all thought and power one a specific task. Usually while coding or rebuilding computers. That was the only time he had a one-track mind and the rest of the world was simply oblivion.

Well it wasn't really as though any of this mattered anyway. Sollux was not like that apparently. They were learning this new lifestyle as they went on day to day. It wasn't as though the boy was an exact cloned copy of him -

“Wait – that ectobiology thing that, oh never mind,” Psii mumbled to himself as he hoisted Dave up with the gentle blue and red pulse of his powers and deposited him in the other half of Sollux's recuperacoon and then turned around and left them in peace.

Or it would have been peace if Dave hadn't come up sputtering obscenities and flinging blue sopor with each flail of his arms before clinging to the side of the recuperacoon for dear life.

Sollux, meanwhile was busting up so hard he couldn't breath.

“What the glorious FRICK JUST HAPPENED!?” Dave wiped his hand down his face to slough off a layer of blue goo, suddenly aware of his lack of shades. “Where are my -” He looked down in the pool of slime noticing a sudden lack of other attire. “AM I FRIGGIN STRIPPED TO MY BOXERS!? This is it, this is the day they warned us about. Molested and prodded by aliens in my sleep. There had better not been probes, and you, stop snickering at me! You could have woken me up!”

Sollux had sunk down in the red sopor to stifle the laughter, nose just above the surface as he snorted and lifted up just enough to speak, “That's what you get for making me chirrup, a-hole.”

~

Psii was leaning back against the door after he had closed it. Wincing at the yelling on the other side and the suddenly uproarious laughter from Sollux. He then pushed away from the door running over to Dave's phone to open Pesterchum again.

turntechGodhead [TG] began pestering timaeusTestified [TT]

TG: I think I did something wrong.

TT: Oh?

TG: yes, I... what do... don't humans sleep in sopor?

TT: Nope.

TG: oh goodness, I think I may have culturally blundered.

TT: Not at all. That was part one of the divine punishment for failing to text the older brother when staying out all night. Part two will be when he gets home tomorrow and I snap his skinny little teenage butt off and hand it to him with a bow and a few rose petals.

TT: but for now I would say you have about two seconds to abscond the heck out of dodge, man. Nothing worse than a Strider scorned.

TT: Hey. I've got beer if you want to hide/hang over here.

turntechGodhead [TG]Ceased pestering timaeusTestified [TT]

TT: heh heh see you in a minute.

 

Another day another small lesson learned about this twisted new intermingling planet of humans and trolls.

**Author's Note:**

> Some extra little notes I hope clear up any confusion. 
> 
> There is an implied quadrant set up for Sollux. Aradia is his Moirail and Feferi his Matesprite for now. I will be honest here, I tend to lean more towards Aradia as his Matesprite so there may be quadrant flipping later. Eridan is there but not as a Kismesis, if there's any black romance going on here it's in Eridan's head. He's pretty much only there because of Fef, since she's trying to give him another chance. (I do like Eridan, just so you know.)
> 
> Sol's living in the apartment next to The Psiioniic, who is basically having to take on the lusus/parenting roll due to human standards that 'children can't fend for themselves". It will be a learning experience that Dirk seems to be helping Psii with. However, he is trying to back off and let Sollux live his life. They ended up in the same apartment complex as the Striders because - because I said so. No really, I begged gB for Striders because of my obsessive love of Striders/Captors and she gave in because I can whine and be the most obnoxious moirail ever. 
> 
> I am really happy writing these, so I hope you guys like reading them.
> 
> Forgive me if I've messed up some spelling or grammar here and there. I try to go over these carefully, but I do not have a beta reader at this time. It has also been a year and a half since I last wrote anything, due to severe writer's block. So I feel rusty, but I'm hoping Homestuck can pull me out of this.


End file.
